1988 death: two charged with murder

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A mystery case is reopened after a witnesss comes forward with
vital new evidence.

An alleged underworld hitman and an Essendon chemist last night
were charged with the murder of the chemist's wife, whose death 16
years ago had been declared an accident.

Ronald William Crawford, 54, and Lindsay Allen Rountree, 53,
were charged over the 1988 murder of Anne Louise Crawford, 35.

The body of the Strathmore mother was found crushed beneath her
car in the driveway of her De Havilland Avenue house on May 6,
1988.

Police originally believed the married mother of two had crawled
under the car while changing a flat tyre and the vehicle had
collapsed on top of her. The case was recently reopened as a murder
investigation when a witness came forward with vital clues.

Crawford is a respected chemist who has a business in Wantirna
South. Police last month appealed for public help in looking for
Mrs Crawford's car and announcing her death was no longer
considered an accident.

Crawford gave himself up to police yesterday afternoon when he
attended the St Kilda Road police complex with his solicitor.

Rountree, who spent nearly four years as a protected police
witness after testifying over the Walsh Street murders, was
arrested yesterday morning at an undisclosed location.

He was a key prosecution witness in the trial over the October,
1988 murders of Steven Tynan and Damian Eyre in Walsh Street, South
Yarra. He was arrested over a robbery five days before the killings
and testified about a subsequent alleged prison conversation with
Victor Peirce, who was later acquitted.

Rountree said in 1994 he would never help the police again,
having had a nervous breakdown while a protected witness. He
claimed police treated him with disdain after he was taken out of
prison and put under 24-hour police guard.

Police were originally told that Mrs Crawford had crawled under
her Ford Fairlane to find a wheel nut when the car toppled from the
jack. But it is believed that when the case was reopened,
investigators conducted tests that showed it was virtually
impossible to have happened that way.

A Melbourne newspaper reported at the time of Mrs Crawford's
death that her daughter, then aged three, found her mother's body.
Mrs Crawford's seven-year-old son was not told about the tragedy
until he came home from school.

Coroner Harley Harber found in February 1989 that Mrs Crawford
died from cerebral trauma due to an extensive skull fracture and
that the "deceased contributed to the cause of death".

Crawford and Rountree both face one count of murder. They were
in custody last night, and will face the Melbourne Magistrates
Court on Monday.